Refrigeration



July 9, 1940. a D. E. P RHAM Er AL REFRIGERATI ON Filed March 13, 1939 s Sheets-Sheet 1 mm, 3% Pw/ W July 9, 1940. D. E. PER AM El AL REFRIGERATION Filed March 13, 19:9

3 Sheets-Sheet. 3

III/IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII/l\ V IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII III/IIIIIIIIIII jizve rzfonsx Decz/z'e Z z el'alzz V 'goms JZ. lu k/fizzy V J) u, J/(weaw M Patented July 9, 1940 PATENT OFFICE REFRIGERATION peanen. Perham and Ross A. Whitney, Chicago,- 'Ill.; said Pei-ham assignor to said Whitney Application March 13, 1939, Serial No. 261,562

6 Claims.

. This invention relates to refrigeration and has for its principal object to enable foodstuffs and the like to be preserved under conditions which will materially mitigate the drying out thereof even if exposed in open dishes and to also afford a relatively low temperature to enable freezing of foodstuffs, such as ice cream, and to enable the preservation of foodstuffs requiring relatively low temperatures for this purpose.

10 While waterice has been used as a refrigerating medium for an appreciable time, it is only recently that resort has been had to arrangements which enabled water ice to be used in circumstances that would permit substantially uniform temperatures ,to be maintained in the compartments refrigerated by the use of such ice. Such arrangements entailed what is known as under ice circulation and in order that sufficiently low temperatures could be realized where 20 the circulation of air was confined to but a single face of a block of water ice or the like resort has been had to an arrangement which would increase the rate of heat transfer between air flowing from the space to be refrigerated and 25 the block of ice. One such arrangement for enabling this to be accomplished is disclosed in the patent to Ophuls and Nuss, No. 1,864,212, patented June 21, 1932.

In: the arrangement shown in the aforesaid patent a rack is provided which consists of' a plurality of spaced apart substantially U-shaped metallic fins which are arranged to have the bights thereof extended upwardly so that when a block of water ice was rested thereon heat picked up by the fins would cause these fins to sink into the ice and thereby define fins of ice intermediate the metallic fins. Such fins of ice in cooperation with the metallic fins afford an area over which air from the space to be refrigerated can be passed that will insure that sufficient heat will be picked up from the air to establish a refrigerating temperature in an' enclosed area to which the air flows after having contacted the metallic and ice fins.

45 In an arrangement such as that disclosed in the aforesaid patent a drip pan has been arranged in spaced relation with the metallic and ice fins and air from the space to be refrigerated flowed over one end of the drip pan past the metallic and ice fins and out over the other end 50 of the drip pan into the space to berefrigerated.

As the air flows over the ice fins in such anarrangement it contacts the wet surfaces of the ice and in addition flows through water dripping 55 from the melting ice to the drip pan therebelow,

and this enables the humidity of the air to be maintained so that as the air flows over food in the compartment being. refrigerated thereby, and

even when it is exposed in open dishes, objectiongo able drying out of the food does not result.

.sirable.

However, in an arrangement such as the foregoing wherethe refrigerating medium was water ice it was not possible to obtain temperatures below 32 F.the temperature of the refrigerating medium, water ice. However, particularly 5 where refrigerators of this type have been employed for domestic purposes it has often been desirable to have temperatures lower than 32 F; in order to enable frozen desserts and the like to be expeditiously produced, and likewise to en'- able effective preservation of. frozen foods and, of course, there are many other instances in which temperatures well below 32 F. are de- Such temperatures can be realized by the use of mechanical refrigerating equipment, but where such equipment has been used to also refrigerate a space in which food products were to be preserved it has not always been possible to' maintain such humidity in the air that the drying out of foodstuffs and the like exposed to 90 air refrigerated by contact with the cooling unit of a mechanical refrigerating system will be avoided.

It will be seen from the foregoing thatthere are advantages in employing water ice as a refrigerating medium and that there are also advantages in utilizing mechanical refrigerating equipment, and therefore an important object of this invention is to enable the advantages of both types of refrigeration to be utilized in a single an apparatus.

In those instances where water ice is used as a refrigerating medium and air from the space to be refrigerated is caused to flow over but a single. face of a block of such ice, as in the arrangement 35 disclosed in the aforesaid Ophuls and Nuss patent, it has been customary to confine the block of ice in a compartment separate and apart from the compartment through which the air to be refrigerated is to fiow. It has been observed by reason of the inevitable heat leakages into the compartment in which a refrigerating medium, such. as water ice, is to be confined that there has been an undesirable meltage of' the ice or other refrigerating medium, and hence another important object of this invention is to absorb heat leaking into a compartment in which a block of ice or other refrigerating medium is stored in such a way as to prevent undesired and objectionable meltage of such refrigeratingmedium, and an object ancillary to the foregoing 'is to provide an evaporator of a mechanical refrigerating system in a compartment in which a block of water ice or the like is adapted to be stored so that heat leakages into the compart-. ment can be absorbed by a refrigerating medium flowing through such evaporator. Other and further objects of. the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claims and are illustrated in the go Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a refrigerator em bodying our novel invention and wherein the doors of the refrigerator are shown open;

Fig. 2.is a vertical transverse sectional view through the refrigerator shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view taken substantially on the line 3-3 on Fig. 2;

and

Fig. 4 is a partially diagrammatic view of the mechanical refrigerating system-incorporated in the refrigerator shown'in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.

In the selected embodiment of our invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings, a refrigerator, generally indicated by ID, is shown as embodying an ice compartment II positioned above a food storage compartment l2, such compartments being defined by a lining l3 arranged in an outer casing l4, intermediate which lining and casing suitable insulation I5 is provided. It will be understood that the particular construction and arrangement of the refrigerator and compartments as H and I2 therein forms no part of our invention inasmuch as any arrangement which will enable a block of ice as l6 or other equivalentrefrigerating medium to be utilized for the purpose of establishing a refrigerating temperature in a storage compartment as l2 will be suflicient for the purposes of this invention.

However, in the present instance a rack, generally indicated by I! is provided intermediate the ice'compartment I l and the food compartment l2, this rack being supported by suitable ledges provided in the refrigerator construction and comprising a plurality of spaced apart, substantially U-shaped metallic fins l8. As best shown in Fig. 1, the fins [8 have the bights thereof extended upwardly so that the block of ice l6 may be rested on these bights.

A drip pan l9 or an equivalent arrangement is supported below the rack 11 and, in cooperation with the rack and. block of ice, defines a cooling and air conditioning chamber 20. It will be noted that the front and rear ends of the drip pan l9'are respectively spaced from the front and rear walls of the refrigerator and that this pan is arrangedat the upper end of the food or storage compartment l2. Hence, air may flow from this compartment over the front end of the pan l9 and through the chamber 20 and out over the rear end of the pan I 9 back into the food compartment l2. As the air flows through the compartment 20 it is cooled inasmuch as heat is picked up therefrom by the metallic fins I! which thereuponsink into the ice to form fins of ice therebetween, as best shown in Fig. 1, and these fins of ice cooperate with the metallic fins in reducing the temperature of air flowing through the compartment 2|] so as to enable a refrigerating temperature to be set up in the compartment l2. the surfaces of the ice fins between the metallic fins l8, and furthermore as heat is transferred to the ice block it meltage thereof will occur, wherefore water will drip across the chamber 20 Moisture will, of course, be present on into the drip pan I9, and such water will be discharged from the refrigerator through the usual drain pipe arrangement 2|. By reason of the contact of air flowing through the chamber 20 with the moisture on the surfaces of the aforesaid ice fins and the water dripping. across the chamber 20, the humidity of the air will be maintained sufiiciently high to avoid objectionable drying out of foodstufis exposed in open dishes stored in the compartment I2.

It has been explained that it is frequently desirable, particularly in domestic use of refrigerators, to haveavailable a temperature lower than the 32 F. temperature of water ice and that this could be accomplished by using mechanical refrigeration. In the present instance this is realized by providing a. compartment 22 at one corner of the compartment 12, this compartment 22 being defined'in the present instance by an insulated wall 23 which cooperates with the bottom, rear and one side wall of the compartment l2 in. order to define the compartment 22. Preferably a door 24 is provided at the front of the compartment 22 so that this compartment can be maintained isolated from the compartment I2, the door 22 being arranged so as not to interfere with the closing of the door 25 included in the refrigerator for closing the opening in the front wall of the refrigerator through which access is had to the compartment l2, and in the present instance also to the compartment 22, the door 24 being openedwhen access 'to this latter compartment is desired.

In the present instance an evaporator 26 is supported in the compartment 22 and this evaporator is shown as having drawers 2'! associated therewith. It will, of course, be understood that a single drawer could be substituted for the two drawers 2! that are shown or other arrangement could be provided for utilizing the temperatures made available by the evaporator 26 within the compartment 22, the drawers 21 and the particular manner in which the evaporator 26 is mounted in the compartment 22 merely being illustrative of a way in which the low temperature in the compartment 22 may be afforded and utilized.

It has been explained that by reason of heat leakages through the walls of the compartment I I and for other reasons there may be undesirable and objectionable melting of a block of ice as It stored within such compartment, and it has also been explained that it is among the objects of this invention to prevent such undesirable and objectionable melting of vthe ice cake by pro viding an evaporator or the like in a compartment as H and to absorb heat leaking into the compartment bythe refrigerating medium flowing through such evaporator. Thus in the present instance an evaporator 28 of the plate type is supported by brackets 29 in the upper part of the compartment H and preferably the evaporator 28 is supported out of alignment with the opening 30, closed by the door 3|, into the compartment II and through which a block of ice as I6 is introduced into the compartment to either rest onthe upper surface of a previously installed block of ice or to rest directly on the fins [8. It will be understood that in an arrangement where a rack as I! is employed the ice melts downwardly and thereby affords a flat upper surface onto which another block of,lce may be expeditiously slid when the first block of ice is substantially exhausted. This is a particularly advantageous arrangement for it not u only insures that an ample supply of ice may be maintained in the refrigerator but it enables a substantially uniform temperature to be maintained in the compartment l2 irrespective of the size of the ice cake. By arranging the evaporator 28 out of alignment with the opening 36 the likelihood of damage to the evaporator when a block of ice is installed in the compartment H is avoided.

In the present instance the lower wall of the compartment I2 is arranged well above the bottom of the refrigerator l6 so that a compartment is provided at the bottom of the refrigerator. Furthermore, in the present instance a partition 32- is provided in this compartment at the bottom of the refrigerator to divide it into a storage compartment 33 in which utensils or the like may be stored and a compartment 34 in which in the present instance a compressor 35 and a condenser 36 of a mechanical refrigerating system are'mounted, the compressor 35 in the present instance being driven by an electric motor 31, also mounted in the compartment 34, through a belt 38.

Wehave found that it is advantageous to maintain a relatively low temperature in an evaporator such as the evaporator 26 while it is not essential that so low a temperature be maintained in the evaporator located in the position of the evaporator 28, in the present instance. In

view of this, liquid refrigerant from the cone denser 36 is directed through a pipe 39 to a heat exchanger 48 and thence through a pipe 4| to an expansion valve 42 or other pressure reducing means, the expansion valve 42 in the present instance being mounted in the compartment ll. Liquid refrigerant passing through the expansion valve 42 flows through a pipe 43 to the evaporator 26 and thence through a pipe 44 to the evaporator 28 and from the evaporator 28 the refrigerant fiows througha pipe 45 which passes through the heat exchanger 46 and returns to the com-' pressor 35, refrigerant compressed in the compressor 35 flowing through the pipe 46 to the condenser 36. s

Thus liquid refrigerant under relatively high pressure from the condenser 36 first flows through pipe saw the heat exchanger 40 where its temperature is reduced by the refrigerant returning to the compressor 35 through the pipe 45. Liquid refrigerant passed through the expansion valve 42 or other pressure reducing means is at apressure lower than the pressure thereof in the pipe 4| and as such a refrigerant flows into the evaw orator 26 it is at least partiallyevaporated therein to thereby establish a relatively low temperature in the compartment 22. After flowing from. the evaporator 26 the refrigerant is admitted into the evaporator 28'where it serves the purpose of absorbing heat that leaksinto the compartment II and where it also serves to maintain a block of water ice as l6 or the like at a temperature lower than its melting point and thereby undesirable and objectionable meltage of a block of ice as I6 is prevented. v Refrigerant passing from the evaporator 28, as stated heretofore, somewhat reduces the temperature of refrigerant flowing to the expansion valve 42 as it flows through the heat exchanger 46 and returns to the'compressor 35 to have the pressure thereof increased to facilitate liquefaction thereof in the condenser 36. It will be understood that regardless of what construction is employed to enable a. refrigerating medium, such as water ice, to be used for the purpose of establishing a refrigerating temperature in a storage compartment as l2, it will be desirable that air circulated through such a, storage compartment be prevented from contact with the evaporator or evaporators of the mechanical refrigerating system employed as above. This is accomplished by an arrangement such as that shown in the accpmpanying drawings by confining the circulation of air to the underside of the ice for so to do prevents the air from coming in contact with an evaporator, such as the evaporator 28 in the present instance, and this is also accomplished by isolating an evaporator such as the evaporator 26 from the storage compartment It will be manifest from the foregoing description that we have realized the above set forth objects of this invention inasmuch as by the utilization of an arrangement such as that hereinabove described it is possible to establish a refrigerating temperature in a storage compartment as l2 and to effect this by the use of water ice as a refrigerating medium which, as explained hereinabove, has the advantage of enabling food to be stored in the compartment as l2 in such a way as to be exposedto the air circulated in the refrigerating compartment without objectionable drying out of the food. At the same time we have made available a temperature such as can be utilized for the preservation of frozen foods or for the production of frozen desserts and the like, and this latter has been accomplished by utilizing a mechanical refrigerating system and arranging an evaporator included in such system in such a way that the temperature established by the evaporation of a refrigerating medium in such evaporator may be utilized for the aforesaid and like purposes. Moreover, we have prevented undesirable and objectionable meltage of the water ice in .the compartment in which it is to the storage compartment past a refrigerating medium housed in the refrigerating medium compartment to thereby cool the air and enable a refrigerating temperature to be established in the storage compartment, armechanical refriger-- ating system in said refrigerator including at least two evaporators, means' providing a compartment in the refrigerator in which one of such evaporators may be arranged to enable a relatively low temperature to be established in such compartment, and meansfsupporting another of such evaporators in the refrigerating medium compartment out of the primary path of air flow past the refrigerating medium to thereby enable such a temperature to be established in such compartment that undesirable and objectionable meltage of the refrigerating medium stored therein may be prevented.

2. In arefrigerator including a storage compartment and a refrigerating medium compartment, means for directing a flow of air from and to the .storage compartment past a refrigerating medium housed in the refrigerating medium compartment to thereby cool theair and enable a refrigerating temperature to be established in the storage compartment, a mechanical refrigerating system in said refrigerator including at least two evaporators, means providing an auxiliary compartment in the refrigerator in which one of such evaporators may be arranged, means supporting another of such evaporators in the re. frigerating medium compartment out of the primary path of air flow past the refrigerating medium, and means in said system for regulating the operation of said evaporators, said evaporators and said regulating means being so arranged in said system that a relatively low temperature is established by the evaporator in said auxiliary compartment and a temperature higher than such relatively low temperature'is established by the evaporator in such refrigerating medium compartment.

3. In a refrigerator including a storage compartment and a refrigerating medium compartment, means for directing a flow of air from and to the storage compartment past a refrigerating medium housed in the refrigerating medium compartment to thereby cool the air and enable a refrigerating temperature to be established in the storage compartment, means providing an auxiliary compartment in, but out of communication with, the storage compartment, means providing a still further compartment in said refrigerator, a mechanical refrigerating system including means for condensing a refrigerating medium and two evaporators, the condensing means ofsaid system being arranged in said further compartment, one of said evaporators being mounted in said auxiliary compartment and another of said evaporators being mounted in the refrigerating medium compartment out of the primary path of air fiow past the refrigerating medium, means interconnecting said condensing means and said evaporators and through which a refrigerating medium may flow, and means in the interconnecting means for regulating the admission of the refrigerating medium into said evaporators, said interconnecting means and the regulating means being so arranged that a relatively low temperature is established by the evaporator in said auxiliary compartment and a temperature higher than such relatively low temperature is established by the evaporator in said refrigerating medium compartment.

4. In a refrigerator including a food compart-,

ment and an ice compartment, a rack supported intermediate said compartments and having a plurality ofspaced apart heat conductive fins thereon adapted to sink into a cake of ice engaged therewith to form fins of ice on said cake intermediate the heat conductive fins, a drip pan disposed below said rack and cooperating with said rack and an ice cake thereon to provide an air cooling and conditioning chamber through which air from'said food compartment may flow to be cooled and conditioned to be returned to said food compartment to establish a refrigerating and food preserving condition therein, a refrigerating system in said refrigerator including at least two evaporators, means providing a c partment in the refrigerator in which one of said evaporators may be arrangedto enable a relatively low temperature to be established in such compartment, and means supporting another of such evaporators in the ice compartment to thereby enable such a temperature to be established in such compartment that undesirable and objectionable meltage of a cakeof ice stored therein may be prevented.

5. In a refrigerator including a food compartment and an ice compartment, a rack supported intermediate said compartments and having a plurality of spaced apart heat conductive fins thereon adapted to sink into a cake of ice engaged therewith to form fins of ice on said cake intermediate the heat conductive fins, a drip pan disposed below said rack and cooperating with said, rack and an ice cake thereon to provide an air cooling and conditioning chamber through which air from said food compartment may fiow to be cooled and conditioned to be returned to said food compartment to establish a refrigerating and food preserving condition therein, a mechan ical refrigerating system in said refrigerator including at least two evaporators, means providing an auxiliarycompartment in which one of said evaporators may, be arranged, means supporting another of such evaporators in the ice compartment, and means in. said system for regulating the operation of said evaporators, said evaporators and said regulating means being so arranged in said system that a relatively low temperature is established by the evaporator in said auxiliary compartment and a temperature higher than said relatively low temperature is established by the evaporator'in said ice compart ment.

6. In a refrigerator including a food compartment and an ice compartment, a rack supported intermediate said compartments and having a plurality of spaced apart heat conductive fins thereon adapted to sink into a cake of ice engaged therewith to form fins of ice on said cake intermediate the heat conductive fins, a drip pan disposed below said rack and cooperating with said rack and an ice cake there on to provide an air cooling and conditioning chamber through which air from said food compartment may flow to be cooled and conditioned to be returned to said food compartment to establish a refrigerating and food preserving condition therein, means providing an auxiliary compartment in, but out of communication with, the food compartment, means providing a storage compartment in said refrigerator, a mechanical refrigerating system including-means for condensing a refrigerating medium and a pair of evaporators, the condensing means of said system being arranged in said storage compartment, one of said evaporators being mounted in said auxiliary compartment and the other of said evaporators be-- ing mounted in the ice compartment in a position to avoid engagement therewithof a cake of ice introduced into said compartment, means interconnecting said condensing means and said evaporators and through which a refrigerating medium may flow, and means in the interconnecting means for regulating the admission of the refrigerating medium into said evaporators, said interconnecting means and said regulating means being so arranged that a relatively low temperature is established by the evaporator in said auxiliary compartment and a temperature higher than such'relatively low temperature is established by the evaporator in said ice compartment.

DEANE E. PERHAM. ROSS A. 'WHITNEY. 

